About Chris Larsen
Chris Larsen, co-founder and executive chairman of Ripple, has been active in discussing the company's progress and the broader cryptocurrency landscape. In October 2025, he announced that Cross River Bank and CBDW had become the first U.S. banks to join the Ripple protocol, describing the development as a step toward demonstrating that distributed ledgers are viable alternatives to correspondent banking. Larsen stated that the strategy involves securing a bank in each key global region to create a multiplier effect, and noted that Ripple has about seven institutional market makers. He has also spoken about the potential for blockchain technology to improve carbon credit markets, arguing that it could make them "radically transparent" and help ensure fair pricing for participants such as farmers in Africa.
Larsen has frequently addressed regulatory and reputational challenges facing the crypto industry. He has said that "reputational risk" and a lack of clear rules are holding back adoption, and that the industry needs to work on getting law enforcement and banks comfortable with the technology. He has described the current U.S. regulatory approach as "regulation by enforcement" and advised entrepreneurs not to start crypto businesses in the U.S., pointing to jurisdictions like London, Singapore, and Dubai as having clearer rules. Larsen has also characterized the internet of value as "the final step in globalization," arguing that while data and goods are interoperable globally, money is not. In addition, he has commented on local issues in San Francisco, including homelessness and public safety, and has supported community benefit districts and camera networks in the city.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Chris Larsen's recent appearances.
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Transcript (3 segments)
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Chris Larsen0:00
Yeah, we just announced that we signed up CBW out of Kansas and Cross River Bank out of New Jersey. Obviously with banks, they are rightly careful about any new technology for regulatory purposes and for stability purposes. So these conversations do take a while, six months to a year, we think, to really introduce the concept and then how it can be applied and then start talking about pilots. We're really pleased. These are the first US banks now on the Ripple protocol. So we think we are starting to get our message out there that these new technologies, distributed ledgers, really can be seen as viable alternatives to correspondent banking, and that's very powerful for particularly these smaller banks that otherwise have to rely on correspondent banks.
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Interviewer0:40
Okay. So am I right in thinking the strategy is then to get kind of nationwide deployment of Ripple, and if so, how is that going to work? What's the strategy?
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Chris Larsen0:48
Yeah. So the strategy really is now first try to get a bank in each of the key regions of the world, because if you can connect one bank in the US to one bank on SEPA in Europe, you've effectively connected all of the banks on those two networks. So you really get a multiplier effect. Now we have this Fedor out of Germany on SEPA, and we have now these two US banks. We got to work in China, we got to work in South America, India, and really continue to spread it and get to some of the bank networks. So definitely getting banks as gateways to bring currencies onto the platform is very important, and along with that, bringing market makers to make markets between those currencies cross currencies. We've already been pretty successful there. We have about seven institutional market makers already. Now it's really kind of filling it in.
